Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Who’s afraid of the big bad Giants, 5-5 in their last 10, owners of a five-game losing streak? I am. Honest.

My New York Mets have a losing record against only three teams this year, and two of them are in the American League. They’ve lost only a total of 10 series all season, and

Dino Vournas / The Associated Press

I don’t mean to point fingers, but I know who I’d like to pitch against my Mets in a key situation of a New York-San Francisco series.

only two of those teams are good enough to make the playoffs in the National League. One is the Cardinals. The other? Yup, those big bad Giants. Five-game losing streak or not, if they win the NL West — and that’s certainly not an impossibility (see: Bruce Jenkins’ 3-Dot Lounge in Saturday’s Chron), even with those three 40-somethings limping the outfield — it could be an East Coast/West Coast NLCS.

And that’s what scares me.

In two days in June against the Mets, the Giants scored 16 runs, got production from those geris (Bonds: 2 hits, 2 RBIs; Finley: 6 hits, 3 RBIs; Moises Alou was probably getting an ankle massage in the dugout), and were lights out in the pen (relief pitchers gave up 3 runs in 13 innings). Armando Benitez didn’t even wet his pants.

In short, they did everything they’re capable of doing but don’t do on a regular basis. And I thought veteran leadership accounted for something consistent. Go figure.

But everyone knows that in a seven game series — heck, in any series — anything can happen. Probably one thing is guaranteed to happen.

This unsavory little scene: Merry ‘Mando, back in Shea, waddling to the mound, fidgety and pit-stained as ever. Two outs, bases loaded, and — what the hell — a full count. Sweating bullets. Series on the line.